Green hydrogen transitions deepen socioecological risks and extractivist patterns: evidence from 28 prospective exporting countries in the Global South

Abstract

The global green hydrogen rush is prone to repeat extractivist patterns at the expense of economies, ecologies, and communities in the production zones in the Global South. With a socio-ecological risk analysis grounded in energy, water, and environmental justice scholarship, we systematically assess the risks of the ‘green’ hydrogen transition and related injustices arising in 28 countries in the Global South with regard to energy, water, land and global justice dimensions. Our findings show that risks materialize through the exclusion of affected communities and civil society, the enclosure of land and resources for extractivist purposes, and through the externalization of socio-ecological costs and conflicts. We further demonstrate that socio-ecological risks are enhanced through country-specific conditions such as water scarcity, historical continuities such as post-colonial land tenure systems, as well as repercussions of a persistently uneven global politico-economic order. Contributing to debates on power, inequality, and justice in the global green hydrogen transition, we argue that addressing hydrogen risks requires a framework of environmental justice and a transformative perspective that encompasses structural shifts in the global economy, including degrowth and a decentering of industrial hegemonies in the Global North.